Encouraging students to engage in out-of-the-classroom learning experiences is a long-standing priority in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois. Recently, experiential learning opportunities fulfilling this curriculum requirement were organized under one multi-section course. Students are required to complete a memorandum-of-agreement with a faculty supervisor outlining their proposed activity, learning objectives, and work product to demonstrate their learning. Considerable flexibility was maintained within this organization so that students can pursue a wide range of experiences. This reorganization provides the opportunity to evaluate the breadth of the students’ experiential learning activities. From the summer 2012 through spring 2013, 185 students (39% of the animal sciences majors) completed 238 experiences supervised by 38 different faculty supervisors. Students engaging in multiple experiences accounted for 17.7% of the total, with 14.3% engaging in 2 experiences and 3.4% engaging in 3 to 5 experiences. Students earned 1 (49.2%), 2 (29.8%), 3 (13.0%), or 4 hours (8.0%) of credit for experiences across an array of activities. The majority of experiences involved undergraduate research (33.2%). A substantial number of experiences reflected a companion or exotic animal interest including internships at a local county humane society (18.9%), companion animal spring break trip (13.4%), working with a veterinarian (8.0%) and interning at zoos, sanctuaries or rescue organizations (3.0%). Other experiences included teaching assistance in the required animal handling course (8.0%), on-campus special projects (4.2%) and internships with agriculture groups (1.7%) or companies (1.7%). Study abroad accounted for 3.8% of the experiences. Organization of diverse experiential learning opportunities under one course number with multiple sections provides important information about the range and nature of opportunities in which students engage. This allows the department to further enhance the value of experiential learning to its students.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe
